


shadows in your eyes (darkness in your veins)

by throwingpineapples



Category: Always Raining Here
Genre: But it's there, Darkness AU, Idk what to call this au, M/M, i'm not sure what inspired me to do this, idk - Freeform, it's cool though you should read it, kinda like vampires but totally not, like you have to really squint, maria is mentioned in passing, some minor jaria if you use an electron microscope, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 10:52:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7312105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/throwingpineapples/pseuds/throwingpineapples
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carter wasn’t hunting, but he was there and she was crawling with darkness that would taste so delicious on his tongue – so divine running through his veins and crawling throughout him.</p>
<p>So he took it,</p>
            </blockquote>





	shadows in your eyes (darkness in your veins)

**Author's Note:**

> yeah.
> 
> idk what this is but i like the way it turned out (kinda). the thought of a sort of evil carter entertains me, i guess. enjoy the first fanfic in a long journey to bring more arh fics into the world.
> 
> rated teen for a minor sexually implicative paragraph (lol i felt like it).

She was broken, crumpled on the corner with the light of the streets dancing in her hair, casting brutal shadows across her form. Crying, sobbing, maybe none of it – but she was cracked, whatever shell of a defense she had held until now had shattered and she was sitting broken on the corner while the shadows within her ate her alive, head down, limbs lax.

Carter wasn’t hunting, but he was there and she was crawling with darkness that would taste so delicious on his tongue – so divine running through his veins and crawling throughout him.

So he took it, every last bit of the shadows writhing under her skin and she fell limp and defeated and then she was gone, nothing but a wisp in the whispering skies above him – her shadows clawing in his lungs and seeping out of his pores as he stalked away in the faltering light of the street.

When he turned the corner, they went out.

-

Carter was slumped against the couch when Jason came in from his hunt, shadows sighing in his hair and painting his soul black. If not for the brown of his eyes, Carter would say he almost looked as one of the demons that possessed the world so long ago.

“Do you ever get tired of the screaming?” he asked as he stalked into the empty kitchen, standing in front of the table.

Carter looked up with lazy eyes where black rimmed the corners, eyeing his friend’s back as he stared at the bare table, before turning them back towards the stuttering television where a movie played for the thousandth time over. Sometimes Carter wished that he could be what Jason was, somehow still a sliver of humanity in his blood even after the demons dyed it black. But in this world that was weakness, an empathic mind a burden when you tore the dark from a soul’s light and the screaming resonated in the air until the light glowed no more and it disappeared into the wind.

Carter couldn’t remember what it was like to care about the soul being torn apart anymore, and he wondered vaguely if it was nice.

So he cocked his head, eyes only barely still blue trained on the credits rolling down, fingers moving to click replay for the thousand-and-first time, “’Dunno,” he drawled, voice laced with disinterest that he should call callous and Jason growled something feral before leaving the room.

Carter just watched as the movie started again, the sounds of his friend’s yelling nothing but static noise that he turned the volume up to drown out.

Carter met him in an alley, something – maybe curiosity – dragging his limbs into the narrow space after a flash of red hair in the dull dark caught his eye. He assumed it was someone feeding, but the darkness in the air was too little and the way the flash had hurried was strange. Then again, maybe it was someone’s first feeding, and if they sensed the shadows heavy and oozing in Carter’s veins they would have bolted without a second thought. No one was ever keen to start fights they couldn’t win.

But it was none of those things – nothing but a boy with messy red hair and a mole under his eye.

Carter didn’t do anything at first, trying to decide whether he was worth devouring or not. He was far from full, the number of shadows lurking in his gut only that of the naïve ones who thought they could live without the darkness writhing in their veins, but Carter didn’t often leave a chance unused.

But when he made up his mind to take the boy’s blackness, a hand raising in front of him, the boy lunged, throwing his fist to Carter’s face.

Carter caught his wrist, throwing him to the wall before moving to pin him down with a hand over his throat. The boy didn’t let him, though, kicking his side and Carter dropped him as a bruise already began to form. Then the boy was lunging at him again, striking Carter in the gut and then the face and then he was on the ground, black blood seeping from his lip.

But he was up again and the boy pinned to the wall once more, Carter suddenly unwilling to devour him, only staring as he struggled but the shadows didn’t let him win this time.

“What’s your name?”

The boy only glared and snarled, still struggling to be released.

“You’re Pure,” Carter continued.

The boy just growled, and Carter tightened his hold.

“And you’re Tainted,” he hissed, managing to nearly free his arm.

“Where’d you learn to fight?” the boy got a bit too close to breaking free, and Carter slammed him back again.

The boy spit at him.

Carter leaned back, grip still tight on the boy, but he brought his finger to his lip and swept the blood off of it, holding it out, “Do you want to be stronger?” he inquired, the boy’s eyes zeroing in on the black smeared on a cold fingertip.

Carter moved it closer and the boy jerked his head away, lips tightly shut and the darkness writhed inside Carter with something he didn’t know, “Why not?” he asked.

The boy glared at him, “I’m not like you.”

Carter stepped back then, eyeing him as he pulled at the ropes of shadow holding him beneath his skin, “Then what are you like?”

“A Tainted killer.”

Carter raised an eyebrow, “With your level of skill?”

The boy glared and snarled again.

“You’re weak. You’ll never get close to touching a Tainted,” Carter dropped his hands to his pockets, the darkness crawling around in his veins buzzing.

The boy growled at that, “Tell that to the blood on your lip.”

Carter blinked owlishly, “A fluke. I didn’t know you would fight back.”

The boy tugged on the darkness chaining him harder, “Just kill me already.”

Carter cocked his head, “No.”

The boy looked at him through disheveled bangs, “Why?”

Carter shrugged, “You’re strange.”

"So?”

“So it’s odd.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“I guess it doesn’t.”

Black silence settled between them, and Carter stared as the boy continued to pull and thrash in his binds, and eventually he spoke up, “I could teach you, you know.”

The boy glared at him, “What?”

“Teach you to kill the Tainted.”

He stilled, then, staring now, but he was glaring again a second later, “Why the hell would you do that?”

Carter shrugged again, “’Dunno.”

And the dark quiet seeped into them again. This time it lasted longer and the boy no longer thrashed or tugged, just glared.

And then,

“You’re the strange one.”

Carter tilted his head, “I suppose so.”

The boy looked at him, without a glare or suspicion in his eyes, and leant his head back against the wall, “Fine. You can teach me.”

Carter blinked slowly again, “Alright.”

The boy was quiet for a time, but eventually he said, “Adrian. Adrian Hlaváček.”

The shadows in his veins hummed and the dark writhed again with that something he didn’t know, “Carter. Carter Brooks.”

And the black binds were released and Adrian steadied himself before straightening to stare at Carter expectantly.

Carter just smiled, shadows licking his teeth.

-

“Did you hear about those two outside town?” Jason asked from the kitchen table.

Carter looked away from the television, eyes reflecting his apathy in stale grey-blue, “What two?”

“They got together a while ago,” Jason moved a piece on the board he always played with, the black clacking gently against its surface, “It seems they’re doing well.”

Carter turned back to the movie again, quiet. They’d end up devouring each other eventually, they always do – things like love don’t last in this world. But Jason kept playing his game, so Carter didn’t say anything and watched the characters on screen kiss for the thousand-and-tenth time.

He turned up the volume when Jason started sobbing.

-

Adrian coughed, blood running down his chin and Carter stared at him while he composed himself, darkness lurking around him, “You move too slow.”

Adrian glared, “Then make me faster.”

When Carter opened his mouth with shadows leaking out Adrian snarled, “Without that.”

Carter shrugged, his coat starting to get a bit tight on his shoulders, “Okay.”

Adrian jumped towards him, and Carter moved aside, “You rely on your strength too much,” he caught the fist cutting through his shadows, “You’re not strong,” he threw Adrian to the ground meters away.

Adrian groaned, lying still and then sitting up, glare still locked on him, “Then make me strong.”

Carter blinked owlishly at him before his hands fell into his pockets, “Strength is not what you need. You’re not strong because you aren’t supposed to be,” he cocked his head, “Who taught you to fight with strength?”

Adrian snarled, springing up and lunging at Carter, “There isn’t any other way to fight,” he hissed, struggling with the wall of black Carter created.

“There are many ways to fight,” he pushed the wall further back, Adrian’s shoes scraping on the cement as he held his ground with gritted teeth, “Strength is only one of them.”

The wall fell, darkness seeping into the corners of the alley and Adrian bounded towards him, jumping up with a leg ready to break bone but Carter caught it and tossed him away. Adrian didn’t move against the wall, blood trickling down his face and Carter wondered vaguely if he was dead, but then he looked up and spit crimson at Carter’s feet, “You would know, obviously, seeing as Tainted get their power from feeding off others.”

His tone was dry and sarcastic and Carter felt the shadows twinge with that something, “I wasn’t always,” he turned to fully face Adrian against the wall, “No one is born Tainted.”

Adrian scoffed, coughing, and blood splattered from behind his lips, “Of course. It’s a choice to kill people.”

Carter blinked with slow eyelids, “It’s not a choice to die. There’s only so long the Pure can last without devouring anyone.”

Adrian was breathing ragged, and Carter withdrew his shadows to stare at him and wait to see if he would die and become prey or stand up and fight again, “I’ve made it this far,” he wheezed after a moment, blood running down his chin.

Carter tilted his head, “And how far is that?”

“Twenty-one,” more crimson splattered everywhere.

Carter looked at him with darkened eyes, “And you’re dying, right? I can tell, you’re light is fading. Might as well give in.”

Adrian let his head hit the wall behind him, a dry chuckle seeping past his lips with the red, “It takes more than this to kill me.”

“I wasn’t talking about your broken ribs.”

Adrian’s eyes narrowed, “You can feel it, can’t you? How it gets harder to ignore the hunger. You won’t last longer than another few years Pure, I don’t understand why you don’t just give in and save yourself the trouble. You’ll devour someone eventually,” Carter turned, stalking away, “We all do.”

Adrian coughed, and Carter could smell his blood when he left the alley and the darkness seeping out of him. He almost turned around to taste it, but something compelled him not to, and the shadows hummed in his veins and lungs as flickering lights went out in his wake.

-

The remote and television were waiting for him when he stepped through the door, the dark spoils of his hunt coating veins black through pale skin and dark hair, shadows on his breath. Jason was still playing his game with empty chairs, and Carter slumped against the couch and pressed play on the remote before he had made his next move.

“Where have you been?”

“Hunting,” Carter drawled.

“You smell like blood.”

Carter adjusted himself more comfortably on the couch, “There was blood.”

“Pure blood," Jason was looking at him now, “And this isn’t the first time, either.”

Carter looked over at his friend, black-rimmed eyes listless, “So? It’s none of your concern.”

Jason eyed him from his chair, and then stood, the door of his room shutting and echoing in the halls as Carter rolled his neck while the movie started for the thousand-and-twentieth time.

-

Adrian had managed to bloody Carter’s nose and he grinned as the black dripped over his lip, darkness slithering out with his breath, and Adrian retreated back, his heart beating loud in Carter’s ears.

“The hell?” he hissed, eyes wide.

Carter licked the blood off his lips, “No one’s been able to hit me like that before.”

Adrian’s brow furrowed, the lines of his face hard, “Like what?”

“Without my permission.”

Adrian swallowed, then, and took a defensive position, “So?”

Carter lifted his hands from his pockets, wiping his nose on his coat sleeve and licking the blood that had snaked onto his teeth, “So that means I take the offensive now.”

And Carter slammed Adrian to the wall, grip on his wrists bruising, but Adrian used his strength against him and lifted his feet, crashing them into Carter’s stomach. Carter stumbled back, the air gone from his lungs, and Adrian swept his feet from under him, his back colliding with the cement harshly.

But before Adrian could pin him down Carter sprung up, shadows itching to be used but Carter ignored them in favor of his own body as he fought with the boy, bloodying Adrian’s own nose and lip and bruising his sides in retaliation to the bruises he was receiving. He could taste rancid blood in his mouth and feel it on his skin and he had forgotten what it was like to bleed, to hurt and to be beat down by someone.

It was exhilarating.

It didn’t last longer than a few minutes, Adrian’s movements now languid and heavy and Carter pinned him to the wall again, grin still in place and something wild in his veins as he opened his mouth and Adrian suddenly pushed against Carter’s hold, eyes wide and fearful and Carter didn’t notice until the darkness crawling under his skin was extended between them, coaxing Adrian’s own out with claws of black and death.

But Carter stopped, pulling it back and swallowing it down as it writhed in anger at being denied its wish. He didn’t release Adrian, though, only watching as his chest heaved and he glared at Carter the way he had when they first met.

Carter dropped his head, ebony bangs tickling his skin and he laughed, grin replaced with a smile and Adrian stiffened even further in his hold, “What the hell’s so funny?”

Carter drew back, peering at Adrian through his bangs and licking his still bloody lips, “You. This. Everything,” he chuckled and Adrian gave him a wary look.

“I don’t just stop when I’m about to feed.”

A look of understanding dawned upon Adrian’s features and he gulped, “So why did you?”

Carter looked at him fully, tilting his head to the side, “Not sure,” his hands were in his pockets again, “I’ll think about it,” and then he stalked away, black blood on his face and bruises beneath his clothes and the darkness thrashed furiously inside him, rage strong within it.

-

Jason said nothing when Carter walked into the room and the black on his face had dried to crust against his skin, and he still stayed quiet when he pulled the movie disk out of the player, changing it out for a new one before slumping against the couch.

It was when Carter chuckled that Jason looked over, “You smell like a Pure.”

Carter leaned his head back on the cushions behind him, not saying anything. Jason stared for a long moment before he turned back towards his game.

-

“Thought about it enough?” Adrian remarked, leaning against the alley wall.

Carter hummed, looking up at the sky littered with shadows, “Probably not.”

Adrian scoffed, “What does that mean?”

Carter shrugged, “A lot of things,” but there was a quirk in his lips as he spoke.

Adrian was quiet for a while, and when Carter looked at him again he noted that he had different clothes, “Where’d you get those?”

Adrian cocked an eyebrow, “A corpse.”

Carter raised both his eyebrows, “How pure.”

Adrian glared, “Oh don’t start, you probably pillaged those from worse things.”

Carter fingered the inside of his coat pockets, “Maybe, I can’t remember.”

Adrian stared at him, looking him up and down and his brow creased, “You can’t remember a lot of things.”

Carter hummed again, “I suppose.”

“Why?”

Carter shrugged again, his coat now tight around his shoulders, “’Dunno. Should I care?”

Adrian’s face flashed with something Carter couldn’t recognize, “Do you even know how to care?”

Carter looked away, head tilted, “I used to,” he pursed his lips, “Can’t remember how now.”

Adrian stared at him for a long moment, and wind – such a rare thing in this world – brushed passed them and the shadows in Carter’s veins buzzed at the whispering in his ears.

“Do you want to remember how?” Adrian said after the wind had passed.

Carter looked at him and eyed the mole under his eye and the dirt on his skin, “Maybe. I don’t know. Is it nice?”

Adrian snorted, lips curled and Carter noticed a piercing on his tongue as he spoke, “Depends on what you’re caring about.”

The darkness writhed when Carter stepped closer, “What’s it like?”

Adrian raised an eyebrow, “What?”

“Being Pure.”

Adrian looked away, a dry chuckle in his throat, “Horrible. But it’s better than being Tainted.”

Carter cocked his head, “How so?”

Adrian looked back at him, “I can still feel. That’s a luxury you don’t have and I’m not willing to give up.”

Carter looked down, “Must be nice, then.”

Adrian turned his head again, “Like I said, it depends on what you’re feeling.”

Carter looked up, “So what are you feeling?”

Adrian glanced at him before his eyes fell to the ground, “Lots of things I don’t want to be.”

“Like what?”

Adrian glanced at him again but he didn’t respond, “Let’s just get done with this, yeah? I’ve got somewhere to be.”

Carter didn’t tell him the dark could taste his lies.

-

Jason was out when Carter returned, black splattered on his chin again and fresh bruises under his clothes, and he slumped against the couch, changing out the movie and starting it.

When Jason got back, he was disheveled and Carter was surprised, because Jason was filled with darkness, more darkness than Carter, and it wasn’t often that he was hurt.

“What happened to you?” he drawled as his friend passed on his trek to the kitchen table, shadows licking his feet.

“A girl,” were his words and Carter stared at him as he sat, his game untouched.

“What’s her name?” he said after a long black silence.

“Maria.”

Carter blinked, looking down at the remote in his hands and the cuts on his knuckles, “What’d you do?”

Jason leant back in his chair, “You wouldn’t get it.”

Carter looked back up at him, “Why?”

And Jason looked over his shoulder, black-rimmed eyes mixed with something Carter hadn’t seen before, “You were lost a long time ago, Carter.”

Carter watched him when he stood and left, stalking back to his room, and when Carter trained his stale blue eyes on the television a man and a woman were holding hands on a rooftop.

Carter felt something stir in him and he stood up, the bruises and cuts scattered on him tingling and the dark churning.

-

“What do you think I am?” Carter tilted his head, looking at Adrian as he whirled around with wide eyes.

“The hell?” he shouted, “Why’re you here?”

Carter looked around the old apartment, not unlike his own, “’Dunno.”

Adrian glared at him, “How’d you find me?”

Carter leant against the countertop, “You have a weird smell.”

Adrian stared at him with incredulous eyes before sighing and turning back to whatever he was doing, “Yeah, okay. What do you want?”

“What do you think I am?”

Adrian paused what he was doing again, and looked at Carter over his shoulder, “What do you mean?”

“Am I lost?”

Adrian turned completely, then, “Lost?”

Carter nodded, eyes dull but bluer than they had been in years.

Adrian licked his lips, that tongue piercing from before glinting, “Do you know where you are?”

Carter lolled his head, looking up at Adrian’s ceiling, “Not anymore.”

Adrian didn’t say anything for a while, but he turned back to his meanderings and Carter watched his back and trailed his eyes over his slight shoulders, “What do you think of me?” he said.

Adrian’s movements slowed but didn’t cease, “I think you’re Tainted.”

“Surely that’s not all.”

Adrian shrugged, “What do you think of me?”

“I don’t know,” Carter looked back at the ceiling, “You’re strange.”

Adrian snorted, “The Tainted who didn’t devour me on sight is calling me strange?”

Carter nodded, humming again, “Yeah. You’re strange. I’ve never met a Pure that can touch me before.”

“I’m not like most Pure.”

“I can tell,” Carter sighed, closing his eyes.

“Really now?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

Carter opened his eyes, “You make me feel something in my veins besides the dark.”

At this Adrian froze, and Carter could hear his heart speed up and his breath swallow, “Didn’t you say you couldn’t remember how to feel?”

Carter shrugged, his coat still tight around his shoulders, “I’m only guessing, maybe I’m wrong.”

Silence screamed between them and Adrian still didn’t move. But then,

“What do you feel?”

Carter closed his eyes, “’Dunno, too hard to describe. It’s nice, though.”

And Carter could feel Adrian getting closer, “Nice how?”

Carter didn’t open his eyes, “Feels good.”

Adrian was next to him now, and Carter opened his eyes to look down at him. Their faces were close, and Carter liked the way Adrian’s breath hit his lips, “How good?”

Carter licked his lips, “Better than before.”

They stared at each other for a while, and Carter wanted to lean in and taste the red split on Adrian’s bottom lip but he pulled away, “What was before?”

And then Carter grabbed him with cold hands and slammed him against the wall in front of them, and Adrian stared wide-eyed, “The hell?”

But Carter could only stare at the red line on his lip and he leaned in, wondering what would happen if he licked it and what it would taste like. Was a Pure’s blood as rancid as his own?

And when he did he found that it wasn’t, it tasted odd, almost like metal, and he decided he wondered if all of Adrian tasted like metal. When he discovered that only the metal embedded in his tongue tasted of iron Adrian did nothing to stop him from exploring more, encouraged him to with a fist in his hair and nails scraping over his skin.

But when Carter took the metal ball in his tongue between his teeth Adrian drew back, looking away, “Carter, we can’t.”

Carter blinked at him, “Why not?”

“You’re Tainted.”

Carter leaned in closer, “So?”

“And I’m Pure...” but Adrian didn’t withdraw when Carter brushed his mouth over his again.

“So?”

Adrian had his fist in Carter’s hair again and a hand up his shirt as Carter bit down on the metal in his mouth once more, liking the way he tugged at his hair and scratched his skin harder. Soon they were on the couch, and Carter was biting into his skin and Adrian was curved against him and the couch was scraping against the floor with their rhythm, rickety and unsteady and leaving scrapes on the hardwood in uneven arrays.

-

“Nothing,” Carter murmured as Adrian laid against him, staring at the ceiling again and Adrian looked at him.

“What?”

“You asked what before was. It was nothing,” Carter drawled, blinking owlishly.

Adrian stared at him for a while before resting against him again, “And now?”

Carter leaned his head against Adrian’s, the darkness in him stirring in a way unfamiliar to him.

“Now it’s something.”

-

Carter returned to Jason playing his game again, and when he saw the marks on Carter’s neck and the blue of his eyes he blinked before smiling, “Maybe you do understand,” he said.

When Carter moved to sit across from his friend, Jason placed a white piece in his hand, “Welcome back, Carter.”

Carter just smiled as the dark hummed.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and feedback are always appreciated greatly.
> 
>  
> 
> always raining here (arh) is a bl webcomic drawn and written by hazel and bell, and i am nothing but a humble fan of their's contributing to the arh community. if you want to go check out the comic, go check it out:  
> http://alwaysraininghere.com


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